Sage grouse researchers endure the Wyoming summer heat to gauge nest survival.
Kayla Ruth is studying for her doctorate at Oregon State University. She guided project technicians Devin Hendricks and Julianne Herrick through the desert by truck and on foot. The three had been pummeled in the rudely cast rays for three weeks while continuing a study of the Big Horn Basin’s greater sage grouse habitat and factors that affect their numbers — like predators, agricultural practices and, in a much smaller sense, energy exploration and extraction.